Is social isolation and virtual friendships peculiar to the Japanese?

I'm wondering if this article, Tokyo man marries video game character, has any real purpose at all. The article gives the details about a man who marries a video character, then from this draws the conclusion (via the hand selected expert) that ultimately:

"There are many others who can't express themselves like Sal can, and those are the cases we worry about," says Ashizaki. What's important to note, Ashizaki says, is that Sal is a representative of many of Japan's young gamers. "Today's Japanese youth can't express their true feelings in reality. They can only do it in the virtual world," Ashizaki said. "It's the reverse of reality that they can only talk about what they feel to a friend in the virtual world."

Supposedly it is the strange antics of the main character in the story that help us make this realization. However, the person in question is obviously extremely social. He actually held a wedding for this event and a lot of his friends came and were entertained. So this was all just for fun, clearly. And guess what, the expert even notes this:

... what is healthy about Sal is that he can communicate with people enough to do an interview on CNN and webcast a half-serious wedding, Ashizaki said.

Right, and again many people showed up for his wedding as is seen in this youtube video, by the weird Japan expert, Lisa Katayama:

I suppose I should also note that even in English, this guy's comments were tongue in cheek. So I guess his actions were just an excuse to make some psycho-babble about Japan and the Japanese that might appeal to CNN's viewership. And the fact that the report is actually misleading doesn't matter? I reminded of all those CNN alerts I got over the Tiger Woods issue and when Michael Jackson died ...

You might actually accept the claims made by CNN's expert, and think that as this silly piece attracts attention to that issue, everything is fine, actually. I would say that his remarks could potentially apply to anyone on this planet who uses the Internet; just look at Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. So to the extent that the experts remarks might actually have some truth, it is not a truth unique to just Japan.

If you've an opinion please state it below.